The Pet Trade Impact on endangered parrots

July 2022

By Foster Parrots Executive Director, Karen Windsor

Avian veterinarian and the head of One Earth Conservation, Dr. LoraKim Joyner gently folds her fingers around the baby to steady him as she presses her stethoscope against his body and listens. He is naked and smelly and the pin feathers are punching uncomfortably through his hot skin. There is much that can be learned from this exam, not only about the nestling’s health, but also about the health of the parents, the natural habitat and, ultimately, the human communities that share this environment with the birds. When the exam is over and the samples of blood and fecal matter have been taken, this little baby will be placed back into his nest along with his sibling. The nest will be monitored with the hope that the two will be raised here by their parents until they fledge, though this is not guaranteed because poaching in this area is a constant threat. These yellow-naped parrots (aka Amazon) babies are highly prized as pets, and with an estimated loss of 80%-99% of their total population throughout their range over the last 35 years (IUCN 2021), they represent one of the world’s most critically endangered parrot species.

One never imagines, when they purchase a baby parrot from a pet store or from a local breeder, that their purchase incentivizes the illegal poaching of parrots in the wild, resulting in the harm or death of thousands of baby and adult parrots. But it does. That legal purchase confirms the monetary value attached to parrots, which ultimately compels illegal trafficking and the extraction of birds from the wild. On a global scale, between two and five million birds of every species are ripped from their wild places annually. Up to 75% of trafficked parrots will die in transit because the conditions under which illegal transport is conducted are violent and torturous (Cantu, et al 2008).

But many baby parrots targeted by poachers never even make it that far. Poachers often cut down nest trees to access the chicks. Large numbers of these chicks die when their trees come down. If only 25% of poached parrots survive long enough to make it into homes as pets, then those who commercially promote parrots as pets and create the demand are on the hook for a mind-blowing number of dead birds.

Birds are the most abundantly trafficked of all wildlife on a global scale and 90% of trafficked birds are parrots (Furnell 2019). Illegal trafficking not only targets and exploits poverty in indigenous communities, but is also generally enmeshed with corruption and other violent criminal activities such as drug and weapons trafficking. These are the threats that collide with the lives and cultures of indigenous villages. In this respect, what harms the parrots also harms the people. In places like Honduras and Guatemala where macaws and Amazons are all but disappearing, some folks are confronting the violence and are risking their lives for their parrots. LoraKim Joyner recounts the story of her friend, Tomas Manzanares, an indigenous community leader in the village of La Moskitia in Honduras, who was shot four times in 2010 and nearly died trying to protect La Moskitia’s land, people and scarlet macaws. “Tomas showed me his scars and recovering wounds,” LoraKim says. “I asked him why he was willing to risk his life to return to help his parrots and he said, ‘Doctora, everything is at risk, and I’m willing to risk everything. If the birds don’t make it, neither do my people.’”(Joyner, Portillo-Reyes, 2018)

But not everybody survives. In 2020 Pedro Viteri Arriola, who worked with the NGO Alliance, COLORES, was murdered trying to protect an Amazon nest on his ranch in Guatemala. The chicks were taken. In 2021 in La Moskitia, parrot ranger, Narciso Montoya, was murdered as well (L. Joyner, blog 2021). Conservation organizations working in the field to confront the demand for parrots as pets live with the heartbreak of losing the parrots they love… and also the people they love.

These days the majority of parrots trafficked in Mesoamerica stay in Mesoamrica where the relationship of the people to their parrots remains an indelible aspect of their culture and where parrots have been kept as pets, used in rituals and medicine, harvested for their feathers, and even hunted for food for centuries (Cantu, et al 2006). But the rapid decline in flagship species like scarlet and great green macaws, yellow-naped parrots and yellow-headed parrots throughout their native ranges is astounding and deeply concerning. The IUCN Red List assessment of yellow-naped Amazons went from “of least concern” in 2004 to “critically endangered” in 2021, with remaining parrots now numbering only between 1000 and 2499 (IUCN 2021). As few as 1500 scarlet macaws (Central American subspecies m. cyanopterus) remain throughout their range from Mexico to Costa Rica. While trafficking into the U.S. has declined significantly over the past 3 decades, trafficking of parrots in their countries of origin and across borders into neighboring Mesoamerican countries continues to meet the demand. But is the dramatic decline in parrot numbers evidence of an increase in demand? Colum Muccio, Director of Development for the Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Association in Guatemala, ponders the question. “We are getting fewer confiscated animals at our rescue centers, but is that due to less effort on the part of enforcement authorities (probably), or is there less trafficking (probably not) or is wildlife simply being wiped out? All this depends on the species. I think with the yellow-naped parrots we can pretty safely say…the animals are being wiped out. “

Also of concern to conservationists is the preservation of natural habitat sufficient to sustain wild parrot repopulation efforts. “Over the years, we have shifted from purely wildlife rescue and rehab to habitat protection,” Colum continues. “Why are we saving all these chicks if they don't have anywhere in which they can be released? Also, the wildlife trade is just such an incredible waste; so few animals make it to market. Wildlife rescue and rehab is so difficult, and probably only about 50% of the animals we receive are successfully rehabilitated and returned to the wild to fulfill their role in the ecosystem. So we really need to focus on protecting habitat and busting traffickers.”

right to left: Yellow-naped Amazon parrot chicks in a nest in Nicaragua. Because of conservationists risking their well-being, this critical species has a chance to maintain its populations in some parts of its range; Poached parrots crammed in cages in Dominican Republic. This page, left to right: Dr. Joyner (on right) and a forest ranger examine an Amazon chick in Belize, temporarily removed from her nest to monitor health; The early years of the Rescue and Liberation Center in Mabita, La Moskitia Honduras when security concerns meant that the conservation team had to travel with military support. Unfortunately that is once again the case. Photos by One Earth Conservation unless otherwise noted.

The Wild Bird Conservation Act (WBC) of 1992 and the 2007 ban on the importation of wild-caught birds into the European Union dramatically reduced parrot imports into those markets, but like water around a stone, the trade in parrots has recalibrated and found alternative international pathways. Guyana and Surinam, the only two countries in South America that still legally allow the exportation of their wildlife, not only condone the trapping of their own birds, but they also serve as funnels for illegally trafficked parrots from neighboring countries, Brazil and Venezuela – and beyond. Western Asia, Africa and the Middle East continue to offer enthusiastic markets for parrots whether endangered or not, and many parrots exported from Guyana and Surinam oblige these markets (Chan, et al 2021).

Domestic parrot breeding exploded in the U.S. after the Wild Bird Conservation Act went into effect, transforming what had once been a cottage industry into one of the most lucrative of all exotic wildlife industries in the U.S., placing over 20 million parrots in American homes over the last 30 years (Statistica 2017). But curiously, this has not eliminated the smuggling of parrots across the Mexican border into the U.S. A 2007 study by Defenders of Wildlife revealed that over 100,000 parrots are smuggled into Mexico every year, and while most parrots captured in Mexico or trafficked there from other Central American countries remain in Mexico, an estimated 9,700 are illegally smuggled into the U.S. That’s still a lot of wild-caught parrots. And it’s mindboggling to think that parrots are still being smuggled into a country that is buckling under the weight of an overwhelming unwanted parrot problem.

Based in San Diego, SoCal Parrot, is a nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation facility dedicated to rescue, rehabilitation and release of wild naturalized, non-invasive parrots of southern California. To further wild parrot conservation, education and protection, SoCal Parrot works with officials and confronts the tragedy of illegal trafficking across the border. When traffickers are apprehended and smuggled parrots are confiscated by officials, folks believe the parrots have been saved and there’s a happy ending to the story. That is generally not the case, and ultimately the rescue/confiscation itself becomes a part of the tragedy. Veterinarian, Dr. Patricia Latas, is a board member and advisor with SoCal Parrot, and her work now is focused on confiscated wild parrots, avenues to their recovery and rehabilitation, and supporting the success of naturalized wild parrots in the urban landscape. “It is difficult and often impossible to return poached parrots to the wild,” she explains. “These birds are far from home and have suffered unimaginably during capture, transport and smuggling techniques. Customs/Border Protection, USFWS, and USDA-APHIS officials do not have the manpower, resources or experience to care for the birds immediately on seizure, nor to rehabilitate following mandatory quarantine. Many non-endangered confiscated parrots are euthanized. Neonates are usually euthanized because officials don’t have the time, equipment, facilities and know-how to feed them. "

Janet Trumble, the Operations Director at Oasis Sanctuary in Arizona, also witnesses the tragedy of birds confiscated at the border. “Since we are in the region, we are so often contacted for birds coming up through Mexico,” Janet says. “Most of these cases are small seizures... one, two maybe three birds. Large seizures aren't seen as often at the Mexico border, at least not the numbers or regularity seen with the African species.” According to the NGO, Defenders of Wildlife, however, it can be assumed that successful seizures of parrots at the U.S. border represent only 1%-3% of the actual number of birds trafficked.

The consumer demand for parrots as pets is a call that’s heard around the world, ensuring there will always be a global market. But how can we love parrots without hurting them? LoraKim Joyner and I work at opposite ends of the same problem, and we meet in the middle to try to support one another through our devastation: she trying to reconcile the death and loss she experiences in the field as she fights to save parrots, me having hit my ceiling for seeing parrots in cages and witnessing the neglect, abuse, and degradation of their lives in captivity.

“I feel more strongly than ever that extractive economies with demand and consumerism fueling them are harming all of us at very deep levels,” LoraKim offers. “This goes beyond the politics of the trade and keeping parrots as pets. This is a basic existential threat to earth and her beings, including humans. Having a parrot in the home is a harmful behavior that seeks to repair the alienation we all feel. We want intimacy with the earth and we use birds in the home as a way to soothe our aching hearts. We have to find other ways.”

January 15, 2016

Remembering there is love, even when saying goodbye.

January 15, 2016/ Danika Oriol-Morway

Today I had intended to write a blog post glowing about the success of our fantastic Open House last weekend. I had pictures gathered and had already formed a narrative of what I was going to say - proud, happy and excited for the future. But instead now I find myself creatively and emotionally stuck on today and in particular a bird named Tuesday.

This afternoon we said a final goodbye to Tuesday, a small and elderly Senegal Parrot. She had a mate named Lurch, was mostly blind and had little interest in people. Unable to live in our feisty Senegal aviary, Tuesday and Lurch had their own cage where they lived together for many years. But tonight Lurch will be alone, a reality that weighs heavy on all of us at the sanctuary.

Working in animal rescue, sanctuary or dealing with our own companions - the passing of an animal is inevitable. It is part of our burden as caregivers to watch and help these animals we love so deeply - or animals we barely even know - pass on in peace. Since being at the sanctuary I have been witness to a handful of animals passing away and it is always sad no matter the circumstances.

But sometimes their passing touches us differently than we expect.

Today my sadness was not just for Tuesday and Lurch, who were at the center of this heartbreaking moment, but my sadness was also for us. For the people who care for these animals. Today I watched 3 amazing and stunningly strong women struggle through the emotional and ethical battlefield of deciding on when and how to intervene on an animal’s inevitable passing. Huddled together in our small medical room, glancing down at Tuesday, then at each other, then back at Tuesday. Each of us shared our own stories trying to remember the “right” way to make this decision. We offered ideas of how we would want it if we were Tuesday, or what we think Lurch would want, or what Tuesday would want in this moment. The conversation circled. And circled again. And again. In the end our veterinarian made the decision for us.

No matter how clear the signs might be – this type of decision will never come clearly. To not be able to know for sure what they want or need. Are they thirsty? Are they in pain? To never have an end of life discussion with them, to not have a written and signed Will instructing us on what to do and how to do it. These animals have never had a choice over their own lives. And it almost feels cruel to have to make this choice for them too. But we do. And that is what hit me today while watching my friends and colleagues struggle through the gravity of a decision we have all made before. But no matter how familiar this feeling is, it never gets easier and it never lessens its sting.

Without trying to sound overly optimistic, I truly believe working with animals helps us see and experience our own humanity. With all of the heartbreak that can be found in animal rescue just remind yourself this heartbreak is a sometimes a painful reminder that you are human, you are sensitive, you are caring and loving. We are lucky to have this amazing ability to love so deeply any and all creatures - no matter the form. We just need to see the love in these moments, even when it hurts. I cannot thank our staff and volunteers enough for taking care of these animals with such heart and dedication.

Goodbye Tuesday – fly free wherever you may be.

Daily Life

The Pet Trade Impact on endangered parrots